1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cotton harvesting, and more particularly to feeding harvested cotton into cotton gins.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In previous times, cotton was harvested and loaded into wagons. The wagons were transported to the cotton gin where the cotton was sucked from the wagon by suction.
More recently, the cotton has been harvested and placed into ricks by equipment as shown in JONES ET AL, U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,966. The cotton is then picked up while still in the rick by modified haystack transporting devices which are modified trucks similar to SCHILTZ, U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,550. Then the cotton was transported to the gin in ricks to be fed to the gin.
Attempts have been made to feed the ricked cotton into the gin by placing the rick upon a moving platform or conveyor, and moving it to a rick feeder. This would be somewhat similar to the stack processor shown in KANENGIETER ET AL, U.S. Pat. No. 3,920,190. I.e., the rick was fed into the feeder.
Hardwicke-Etter Company of Sherman, Texas has commercially placed on the market a module feeder known by their designation as "Modular Feed-A-Matic", in which the ricks are placed on a slab, and the feeder moves along a track to the ricks. A door at the top of the feeder folds down against the end of the rick to prevent the last of the rick from collapsing. Applicant understands that the Hardwicke-Etter feeder is built according to the disclosure of a patent application filed June 21, 1976 by Jose G. Condarco et al. and which is presently pending in Art Unit 325. When the module finishes feeding the ricks on the slab, it is necessary to reverse the unit to the opposite end of the slab, place another rick upon the slab and begin feeding again.
At the time of filing this application, applicant was aware of other types of equipment for feeding materials. For example, certain ensilage loaders have vehicles which move against piles or ricks of agricultural product and have drums which take the material from the rick and move it to conveyors where it is conveyed to another location. Examples of this are OSWALT, U.S. Pat. No. 2,724,481; OSWALT, U.S. Pat. No. 2,779,452, and BYRD, U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,635.
KLING, U.S. Pat. No. 2,776,036, shows a machine for loading material from stockpiles, quarries and the like.
COBEY, U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,033, has a compost shifting apparatus which has a door-like structure which rides on the compost heap being shifted.
McLain, U.S. Pat. No. 2,643,522, discloses a machine for picking up blocks of ice and commuting them and feeding them into box cars. The machine is mounted upon tracks and has chutes for picking up blocks of ice from either direction according to applicant's understanding of the machine.